The Last
Adjustments

Amira knew better than to argue with the Crown Prince, and by the way the doctor was inching her way towards her she knew what was coming. Hands still bound, she sighed and began diligently untying her leathers and slid it over her head the best she could, underneath she had only a loose white blouse that was tucked into her pants. She smiled faintly as Rue turned away, suddenly interested in an informational poster on the wall. Maybe they would get the chance to be friends after all. The doctor approached and peeled the blood soaked area of her blouse off the wound. Amira hissed slightly and the woman jumped away as if the Princess would hurt her. “Apologies” she said softly as not to startle the stark woman again. “That just stung a bit.”

The woman nodded in understanding and pulled out some scissors, she cut away a large square of fabric in order for her to be able to work diligently but also retain Amira’s modesty, which she appreciated. She didn’t speak as she worked cleaning her shallow wound assessing the damage and at last applying a bandage. When she had finished she hesitantly looked up to meet Amira’s gaze and cleared her throat, “I um, don’t know how you heal,” she explained, “but if you were human I would say you should remove that bandage once daily clean it and reapply a new one for the next five days”

“And if I were a hellhound you would advise?” Amira asked, raising her eyebrow slightly in curiosity, this was an opportunity for her to learn as much as it was for the doctor.

“L-leave it on for a day and a half, and you should be fine by then,” she answered hesitantly, looking to Rue for a moment as if he would protect her from Amira. Not that she was in any danger at all.

“Very well, thank you for your kindness,” she thanked the woman with a gentle smile and pulled her leathers back over her head awkwardly, “would you mind?” she asked gesturing to the laces, it would be nearly impossible to do up with her hands bound and she thought if she asked the Prince, he might implode from the embarrassment.

“Oh, yes,” the woman said with a small nod before making quick work of the garment seeming to get a bit more comfortable as Amira proved herself to be kind. As the Princess stood and stretched a bit about to head back towards Rue the doctor grabbed her by the wrist stopping her.

Amira spun, almost expecting an attack, but instead the woman pressed a piece of bread into her palm. “If you truly are what they say you are… and are fated to be with his Highness… I’m sorry” she said softly, her voice hardly above a whisper. “Come to me if you ever need anything,” she told her before jerking her chin towards Rue, “now go,” she instructed and Amira obeyed. She looked back at the doctor slightly over her shoulder confusion crossing her features before she approached Rue. She lifted her hands to her mouth to eat the small piece of bread she had been gifted, the first food she’d had in nearly three days and by the gods it was delicious.

“Hey so ah,” she lifted her hands the last bit of the chain dangling down to her ankles, “do you still want this or…” she trailed off confused as to what their new dynamic would be. Rue seemed to think for a moment before he gestured for her hands. He snapped off the dangling piece leaving only the handcuff like links around her wrists.

“I think this is best for now,” he said with a small nod and Amira nodded in return. “We need to get you to Cal’s room, he’s gone to fetch his most loyal pack members,” he explained as he opened the door for her. The pair walked out side by side for once as Rue led the way, glancing around every corner and seeming on quite high alert as they moved through the castle.

“What happened to Zara and Farquin?” Amira asked, unable to help herself.

“They stayed behind to placate mother,” Rue explained, “She likely is furious with me now, talk about a gift that backfired.”

“I am sorry about that Rue if I had known-”

“Relax, nobody knew.” Rue cut her off with a flippant wave of his hand as they rounded another corner and headed for a stairwell. “If we had a lot of things may have been avoided,” he said softly before quickly covering up the sadness with a quip, “besides my mother is always mad at me for something, this time it’s actually something worthwhile to save.” He said flashing her a bright smile, “See I knew we would be friends.” He stated as they reached the top of the staircase, “I was just a little bit off on the sister in law part,” he added with a playful wink. Amira chuckled, shaking her head, it was hard to stay upset around him. If Rue truly was the only good thing she got out of this whole mess, well, it was better than nothing.

“Ah yes here we are,” he said, turning the handle and opening the rather unassuming door at the end of the hallway. Amira entered first and looked around, the room was rather bland. Caldwin certainly did not have a knack for interior design. Rue remained outside, allowing her to explore on her own.

Everything was basic, and seemed to just be the first set he laid eyes on he purchased. In the center of the room was a large bed and directly across from the door was a pair of double glass doors that led outside to a balcony above the castle gardens. Across from the foot of the bed was a door that led to the bathroom.

Amira walked in a bit further her hands idly running along the footboard of the bed. The whole space smelled like him, it was comforting in a disturbing way. She hated how quickly her body responded, how quick it was to trust and desire him. Her mind thankfully, remained sharp.

She walked out to the balcony the soft breeze enticing and inviting. The night smelled of spring and dew she could nearly taste the rain that was brewing in the dark clouds on the horizon. Resting her hands on the railing as comfortably as she could she looked out over the gardens and closed her eyes softly taking a moment to try and piece together everything that had happened in such a whirlwind these past few days.

She felt him approach more than she heard him. His presence lingered by the doors as she sensed his uncertainty. The desire to be with her was clear. However, she had also made it quite clear she did not want anything to do with him, so he remained away until invited.

Amira slowly opened her eyes and sighed reluctantly, “you can come out here,” she said words barely more than a whisper on the breeze exhaustion pulling on her shoulders heavily as she looked out over the gardens. She blinked slowly as he carefully approached walking up to stand beside her looking out over the gardens himself, making no move to touch her, yet it was quite clear he wanted to.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly and Amira was shaken out of her slump with surprise. She hadn’t expected the proud male to apologize. “I am too selfish to give you what you want.” He said voice shaking slightly. Amira did not know if it was from rage or grief. “But I will try to fix this,” he continued, “I swear it, you will have a good life here, I will fight every day to win your love.” The promise rang true in the night, the Princess possessing a particular knack of knowing when one was lying, and he was not. He meant every word. “And if you choose you never want to give it to me or to ever see me again I understand, but if you’d just give me a chance first I… I would like a chance… please,” he added at the end as if it were an afterthought, as if saying please did not come naturally to him.

She could almost hear Rue, still by the door to his room, choke at hearing that word come out of his brother’s mouth. It lightened her heart a little. However, she still had so much to think about. The silence between them grew heavy as her mind attempted to sift through everything that had gone on. In the end she came up with a simple statement,

“If I leave here. Your mother will never stop hunting me.” She spoke quietly with calm assurance in the truth in her words. The silence that followed lasted only a few moments.

“Yes,” Caldwin said, annoyance creeping into his tone, “I can protect you here, play politics with her. She will likely use you against me, but I can keep you safe.” He promised, and Amira believed him. The logic was sound anyways.

“Then for now, I will stay here,” she said turning to look at him and the sigh of relief he exhaled drove fire into her veins. “Not because I want to,” she added sharply, causing the male to stiffen again, “because I have to. I owe it to my remaining family to stay alive and for the chance that Gweneth-″ speaking her name caused her voice to break slightly, “-is alive, I owe it to them and I owe it to my people not to leave them behind in death.” She clarified, “I owe nothing to you, nor do I want anything to do with you,” she spoke calmly but her voice dripped with venom, “your family murdered my own in cold blood. My very own twin who was human died because of the hatred your family released into this earth.”

Each passing sentence caused the Prince to flinch her words striking him harder and deeper than any wound ever had before. “You did nothing to stop it. You only stopped my own execution-” Amira’s voice was slowly rising becoming a near yell, “Because of your own damn selfish desires!” She stopped herself and took a deep breath steeling herself for what she wanted to say next all of this pouring out of her before she even had the time to really think about it, “I was ready to die” she said softly, “I was ready to join my family, and you took that away from me too.” The Prince looked as if he were going to puke. He’d gone pale and took a step back from her as if she may strike him, yet she had made no move to do so.

“I’m sorry,” was all he said, eyes unable to meet her fiery gaze as she pinned him to the spot.

“You should be," she snapped before she couldn’t take being near him anymore. The warring emotions within her yanking her around like some lost doll. So she stalked away back into the bedroom and directly into the bathroom after seeing Rue and a group of soldiers hesitantly hovering outside the bedroom door and knew leaving wasn’t an option. She slammed the door behind her and stood still for a moment.

Her breathing had changed, slow and ragged now as she felt all of her rage turn into sadness beginning to well up inside of her and threaten to spill over. Tears burned her eyes as they slowly escaped her control of them and she walked a few steps forwards to the mirror. She braced her hands on the marble counter and lifted her head to look up at herself in the golden rimmed mirror. She was disgusting. Her hair had fallen out of its braid, her face was covered in dirt, her tears only creating thin paths down her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and hollow. She was still coated in a thin layer of dried blood.

That anger came back with a surging force and Amira lashed out. She punched the mirror with both hands and relished in the sound of it shattering, of the brief pain that came with the shards of glass now embedded in her hands. Her body trembled slightly as she learned down to pick up one of the larger shards and held it tightly in her hand, enough to draw blood on the surface of her palm.

Before she really even had time to think about what she’d do with it the door to the bathroom was ripped open. Quite literally. Apparently the lock was of no concern to the Prince as he ripped the door straight off the hinges. His onyx eyes took in the situation, the glass scattered around her feet, the blood dripping from her hands, and then the shard clenched between them,

“Put it down,” he said tensely and Amira swore she could see fear in his eyes.

“No,” She hissed, pulling her lips back to snarl at him, lifting the piece of glass slightly, not towards him however, towards herself.

“Amira, be rational,” he said, inching half a step towards her. Her name… the way he said her name it just sounded so right. She blinked once and the confusion passed, that anger came slamming back up like a wall, very much like the wall of fire that sprung up between them as her magic involuntarily mirrored her emotions.

“I said, get away from me!” She snarled the flames lunging a bit higher towards the ceiling, yet nothing in the room burned, almost if it were warded against this very thing.

“You said you wanted to live,” He said carefully dark eyes looking to the fire and then back to her, he didn’t seem bothered by the display of her magic though, as if fire did not scare him yet the shard of glass in her hand still did. “For your sister, for your aunt and uncle”

So the bastard did have ears. Amira’s resolve flickered slightly before she realized what he was doing, using them against her and her anger grew to an intolerable level. She made a quick and rash decision to move, twisting her chained hands in such a way that the glass ripped through the thin skin on her arm. Desperate to escape the pain, to be with her family once more.

She didn’t have time to do anymore damage; however, because in the same movement the Prince lunged straight through the fire that blew open a path for him as if he simply willed it. He grabbed Amira’s bleeding hands and ripped the piece of glass away from her causing his own hands to bleed. She struggled against his touch attempting to get away from him, but she couldn’t, he was too strong. He pulled her in closer to his body and she struggled harder, thrashing violently.

“Let me go!” she screeched, but the Prince did the exact opposite of that. He picked her up and carried her back into the main bedroom all the while she lashed out and clawed at him, ripping his clothing and skin to shreds wherever she could reach. He sat down on the bed, his grip still holding her like an iron vice as she struggled screaming, blinded by her rage. She felt rather than heard him call for Rue and her golden eyes snapped up to the young Prince as he approached, “don’t you dare.” She hissed at him, “Don't you fucking dare!” She snarled.

“Do it.” Caldwins voice sounded tired and very, very sad from behind her but her focus was on the younger Prince as sadness filled his own expression.

“Just a short nap Princess,” He said softly kneeling down in front of them, “it will be okay I promise.”

“Don't Rue,” she begged having quit struggling now realizing it was no use, “Don't, please.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly and the air began to slowly leave her lungs, she coughed violently and struggled again against the Crown Prince holding her down digging her talons deep into his arms yet he did not falter, did not let go until the world was dimming around her and every breath she tried to drag in brought nothing. She sank into the darkness of unconsciousness after fighting it with every ounce she had.

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